Coal-fired power stations caused surge in airborne mercury pollution, study finds

Airborne mercury pollution from coal-fired power stations in Victoria’s Latrobe valley increased 37% in just 12 months, according to an annual national survey of toxic emissions.

The mercury output from Loy Yang B coal-fired power station alone
 more than doubled to 831kg in 2016-2017, the national survey of
toxic emissions found.

The mercury output from Loy Yang B power station alone more than doubled to 831kg in 2016-2017, an increase of 123% over five years.

The brown coal burning power station produced more than 640 times the airborne mercury pollution of Eraring power station near Newcastle, New South Wales.

Eraring, Australia’s largest coal-fired power station, produces three times the energy of Loy Yang B power station but reported just 1.3kg of airborne mercury pollution in 2016-17, a reduction of 97% over the past five years.

Read Calla Wahlquist’s story from The Guardian - “Coal-fired power stations caused surge in airborne mercury pollution, study finds.”

Environment watchdog could slap tougher emissions caps on power plants

Victoria’s environmental watchdog is reviewing the licences of the state’s three remaining coal-fired power plants, amid claims toxic emissions have contributed to an unusually high number of low-birthweight babies in the Latrobe Valley and even poisoned native dolphins.

Burrunan dolphins in the Gippsland Lakes have 

recorded some of the highest mercury levels in the world.

The Environment Protection Authority is considering imposing tighter emissions caps on the three power stations, Yallourn, Loy Yang A and Loy Yang B, which together supply about 80 per cent of the state’s electricity.

At the end of the review, revised licence conditions will set legal emissions levels for potentially harmful substances including nitrogen, carbon monoxide, sulphur, mercury and particulate matter.

But the EPA has given no indication it will impose new limits on carbon dioxide emissions, despite calls from Victorian environmental groups to do so as a way to tackle global warming.

Combined, the plants emit about one-third of Victoria’s greenhouse gases.

Read Adam Carey’s story in The Age - “Environment watchdog could slap tougher emissions caps on power plants.”

Australia emits mercury at double the global average

A report released this week by advocacy group Environmental Justice Australia presents a confronting analysis of toxic emissions from Australia’s coal-fired power plants.

Robyn Schofield.

The report, which investigated pollutants including fine particles, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, also highlights our deeply inadequate mercury emissions regulations. In New South Wales the mercury emissions limit is 666 times the US limits, and in Victoria there is no specific mercury limit at all.

This is particularly timely, given that yesterday the Minamata Convention, a United Nations treaty limiting the production and use of mercury, entered into force. Coal-fired power stations and some metal manufacturing are major sources of mercury in our atmosphere, and Australia’s per capita mercury emissions are roughly double the global average.

Read the piece by a Senior Lecturer for Climate System Science and the Director of Environmental Science Hub at the  University of Melbourne, Robyn Schofield, on The Conversation - ”Australia emits mercury at double the global average.”